Stubai Ultratrail Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The STUBAI 100 is the flagship of the Stubai Ultratrail: roughly 100 kilometres and about 6,000 metres of climbing in one vast loop through the Stubai Valley, starting and finishing in Neustift like every race of the event. The terrain is high alpine throughout, passing mountain huts and pastures, and the race carries ITRA points.

There is almost nowhere to hide on this profile. Barely 7 percent of the distance is flat, while close to 60 percent is steep climbing or steep descending. After an opening double of two climbs from kilometre 2.6 totalling around 780 metres of gain, the two hardest sections of the day arrive back to back: at kilometre 25 a 1,147-metre climb over 5.7 kilometres averaging 20 percent, and at kilometre 38 another 1,168 metres in under 5 kilometres, with ramps reaching 48 percent.

The second half offers no amnesty. A further 328-metre climb hits at kilometre 55, and between kilometres 72 and 85 three stacked ascents add more than 1,000 metres of gain at the point where your legs are emptiest. Finishing here means completing one of Austria's most demanding ultratrails, in a valley that has built its identity around exactly this kind of day.

Pacing Strategy

On the Stubai 100 you spend almost 60 percent of the course on steep ground — nearly 30 percent steeply up, as much steeply down — and barely seven percent flat. The race is decided in the middle block: two HC climbs between km 25 and 43 stack roughly 2,300 metres of vertical, with pitches touching 48 percent. Attack the two earlier climbs in the opening nine kilometres and you will arrive at that core empty.

Run the first loop deliberately conservatively and treat the HC ramps as steady-pulse hiking sections, not running climbs. The long steep descents matter just as much: over 100 kilometres the braking adds up, and wrecked quads cost you more on the closing climbs from km 72 than any cautious ascent ever could.

Eat and drink early and often — this effort lasts many hours.

12-Week Preparation

Budget roughly 16 to 24 hours of effort for the STUBAI 100 depending on your level, which for most finishers means racing through day and night. The character is a long, low-intensity aerobic grind punctuated by extreme gradients: climbs averaging 20 percent or more cannot be run and instead demand strong, efficient hiking, usually with poles.

Three things decide this race. First, the back-to-back monster climbs at kilometres 25 and 38, each around 1,150 metres of continuous gain, where you either climb within yourself or spend the rest of the day paying. Second, the nearly 6,000 metres of descent, much of it steep: without economical downhill technique your quadriceps will be wrecked long before the finish. Third, the stacked climbing block from kilometre 72, which asks for another 1,000-plus metres of ascent deep into fatigue.

Your preparation should mirror that. Build very long mountain days with high vertical volume, train fast uphill hiking on steep ramps as a specific skill, and run descents in a pre-fatigued state to develop eccentric resilience in the legs. Back-to-back long sessions on weekends replicate the time-on-feet demand better than single heroic runs. Rehearse your fuelling plan relentlessly in training; over this distance more races are lost to the stomach than to the legs.

With the race in early July, spring is the decisive build phase. Move your training into genuinely alpine terrain as soon as the snow allows, so footwork and technical confidence are settled well before race week.